IOC Not Buying Austrian Team's Excuse
By Erik Stange

March 2, 2002

Botvinov,Hoffman and Piller Cottrer in the Olympic Men's 3OK race

The Austrian ski team is claiming that the blood transfusion equipment found in a closet at their rented home was used for legitimate immune-boosting reasons and not used to enhance their skiers' performance.

The Austrian support staff has claimed that the proceedure of removing a small sample of the blood and subsequently exposing it to radiation was meant to boost the athletes' immune systems. They also claimed that this is a commonly-used practice at European health spas, although it was not performed by any accreditted physicians. The Austrian federation said Nordic coach Walter Mayer had applied a "paramedical method" to prevent his athletes from catching colds and the flu. The federation said the method consists of taking a small amount of blood -- up to 100 milliliters -- and subjecting it to ultraviolet light radiation and magnetic-field treatment before reinjecting it within 10 minutes. In addition, the athlete is given a vitamin C dose.

The International Olympic Committee, howevver, is skepical. Dick Pound, IOC executive board member and chairman of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) was quoted by news sources as saying, "it sounds so far-fetched that it has no credibility. It's clear there are teams that are putting medical experts into a mode of helping their athletes cheat. That is clearly unacceptable."

"First, it doesn't sound credible," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said. "Second, any kind of blood manipulation is part of the doping definition. The Austrian position is not relevant for me."

The IOC is currently investigating the case and has stated that they will consider enforcing sanctions against the involved athletes. This could involve the disqualification of the Austrians, which could result in a completely new set of medal winners for the men's 30 km mass start race, if only Muehlegg was to rightfully lose his Gold from that race. Kristen Skjeldal would be the new gold medalist, followed by Pietro Piller Cottrer and Ole Einar Bj¿rndalen. Bj¿rndalen's bronze medal would be his fifth Olympic medal of the games.